


Family Therapy

by richmahogany



Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:41:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26858389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richmahogany/pseuds/richmahogany
Summary: After only a few weeks, the working relationship between DI Hathaway and Sergeant Maddox is heading for the rocks. Jean Innocent is fed up with James making life difficult for himself and others. She and Robbie Lewis will have to intervene if they want to avert another disaster.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	1. Problem Child

Chief Superintendent Innocent happened to step out of her office just as Sergeant Maddox hurried past her, turning to look daggers at her boss’s door. She sighed inwardly. She really had hoped that the relationship would work out this time, but clearly it was headed the same way as the previous attempts. If she wanted to salvage anything, she would have to act quickly. She made a snap decision and called after Maddox:

“Good night, sergeant. Going home?”

Maddox stopped and tried to clear the frustration from her face.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Any plans for the evening?”

“Not really. Tony’s away ‘til next week, so it’ll be just a meal and the telly.”

Right, Jean thought, this is my chance. I only hope that Lewis gets his as well.  
Out loud she said:

“Why don’t you join me for a drink?”

Maddox, completely taken by surprise, could only say: “Um, er...”

“Cards on the table,” Jean continued. “Yes, I wanted to speak to you, but I didn’t want it to be a formal meeting in my office. I just wanted to have an informal chat, perhaps give you some advice, off the record, so to speak. Which is also why you could just as well say no and go home. It’s entirely up to you.”

Lizzie had to think quickly. Could she really say no to the Chief Super? How informal could such a chat really be? On the other hand, she wouldn’t have important meetings down the pub, so perhaps it would be more in the nature of a friendly talk. Besides, Innocent was not a disagreeable woman, and perhaps she really would have something useful to say.

So Lizzie nodded and said:  
“Yeah, okay, why not?”

“Great! I’ll just have to send a quick text” - she did so even as she spoke - “and then I’ll get my coat.”

They didn’t walk far, and when they entered the pub, Jean told Lizzie to grab a table while she got the drinks. She returned shortly afterwards with two glasses of wine.

“Thank you,” said Lizzie.

For a few minutes they just sipped their wine in silence. Jean composed her thoughts. How best to approach the subject? Well, no point beating about the bush, particularly since it couldn’t have escaped Sergeant Maddox what this was about.

“If I’m not much mistaken,” Jean said, “there will be a transfer request winging my way pretty soon. Am I right?”

Maddox hadn’t been drinking quickly, but on an empty stomach the wine had enough of an effect to embolden her. Besides, Innocent seemed to expect a forthright answer, and so she said:

“I didn’t want to transfer again so quickly, but I don’t see what else I can do. If you don’t see eye to eye with your boss, it makes the relationship unworkable. I mean, I don’t hate the guy or anything, but why does he have to be so…”

She hesitated, searching for the right word.

“Prickly?” supplied Jean.

“Yeah, that about sums it up. He doesn’t trust me to do anything. And whatever I do, it never seems good enough. Or at least he never says it is. I never know what he is thinking at all. Who knows what goes on behind that blank stare of his?”

As she spoke, all her frustration with her impossible superior came bubbling up again, and she took another swig of her wine.

Jean sighed. She knew that Maddox was right – yet at the same time she wasn’t. It was true that Hathaway was a difficult person to fathom and that very few people ever saw beyond the surface.

If the officers under her command were her family, she thought, James would definitely be her problem child. She had known him since he was a Detective Constable. At the start of his career with Oxfordshire Police he had been at Headquarters, where among the many officers and civilian employees he had found a niche in which he had done reasonably well. He was then transferred to a smaller station, and that’s when the trouble started. He didn’t last long there, and when they pushed him out and into her arms, he already had a reputation for being difficult. She was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but she had sensed that there would be trouble from the moment the stony-faced young man had set foot in her nick. Within a week he had got pretty much everybody’s back up. And just as quickly everybody had got his number. Arrogant, toffee-nosed know-it-all, that was the general verdict. Not that she could say as much to Maddox, but:

“I don’t want to make excuses for Hathaway, but if I explain a bit where he’s come from, perhaps I can persuade you to give it a bit more time before you really decide to leave. I have known him for years, and – well, I guess I’m trying to plead for a bit of understanding. Whether that will be enough to change your mind or not, I don’t know, but will you at least listen?”

Lizzie shrugged and nodded. She might as well.

“Hathaway has stood out from the start, and in most people’s opinion not in a good way. Fast-tracked graduates were not a rarity anymore, of course, but public school educated Cambridge graduates with a First in Theology certainly were.  
“Did you know that when Hathaway was a sergeant, he went through inspectors at the same rate as he’s going through sergeants now?”

Lizzie hadn’t known, but if the younger Hathaway had been like he was now...She tried to imagine a younger version of her boss, but could only conclude that he must have been pretty much the same. He probably hadn’t even looked different.

“When Hathaway first made sergeant, I put him with Inspector O’Neill. He was quite old-fashioned and set in his ways, and his idea of a sergeant was someone who does what they are told and doesn’t think for themselves. Hathaway of course thought a great deal for himself, and said what he thought. O’Neill couldn’t deal with a sergeant who disagreed with him or acted independently in any way, so he could not get rid of Hathaway fast enough.”

In fact, she recalled, it was this independence which had got Hathaway in trouble even when he was a DC. The tendency to think things through for himself, to pursue lines of inquiry which his superiors had dismissed as irrelevant, frequently on his own time – Innocent had always had the suspicion that not a single figure on Hathaway’s overtime forms was true. She didn’t know which outcome was worse: James wasting time on dead ends which didn’t benefit anyone, or James turning up something which everyone else had overlooked. Either result gained him the renewed animosity of his colleagues. She had tried to reign him in, but unless he actually violated any regulation, which he didn’t apart from the overtime forms, she had no official means to do so. She could recall several instances where it was James’ dogged pursuit that had turned up the detail which cracked a case wide open. Instead of gaining him the recognition of his colleagues, it cemented his reputation as a smart-arse and a show-off.

She continued:

“I then placed him under Inspector Webster. Webster as a former fast-track graduate prided himself on his cleverness. I had hoped that they might find some common ground, but when Webster realised that intellectually Hathaway could run rings around him, he felt intimidated and started to spend more time finding fault with his sergeant’s work than making use of it. In the end Hathaway treated him with barely disguised contempt, and I had to separate the two before there was metaphorical blood on the floor.  
The third inspector to work with him was DI Knox.”

Hathaway had been DI Knox’s bagman for a while when fate intervened in the shape of a breathalyser, although Jean could already see that a request to rid him of this troublesome sergeant would have been on her desk before the month was out.  
And then fate intervened again with the return of DI Lewis.

“With Knox suspended, DI Lewis became the fourth to try and make sense of Hathaway. What those two saw in each other I still don’t know, but it was Hathaway’s request to work with Lewis, and when I suggested it to him, he said yes. You have probably heard that they had an excellent partnership for years.”

Pairing Hathaway with Lewis had worked out better than she ever would have guessed, and she finally saw her problem child blossom into the valuable police officer she had always known he could be. At Lewis’ side he had settled into his place in the world, a safe base from which to operate. Until Lewis’ retirement upset the balance again. Jean was glad that Hathaway had eventually returned to the force and passed his inspector’s exams, but he had not regained his equilibrium. He had to re-negotiate his place in the world, and he found it hard. And unfortunately he took it out on his sergeant. Not out of malice, but because he didn’t know who he was anymore.

“The step from sergeant to inspector is a big one,” she said to Lizzie. “You are under someone else’s orders, you follow their lead, you obey their instructions. And then suddenly you are the one in charge, you have to lead, and you have to give the instructions. You have responsibilities far greater than before. Some take to it easily, and some struggle. I’m afraid that DI Hathaway is one of those who struggle.”

“Yes,” said Lizzie, who couldn’t hold back any longer, “but why does he take it out on me? Okay, it’s tough when nobody likes you, and I can see how that would warp you a bit, but even if I had some understanding for the DI, that doesn’t make it fair on me. Maybe it’s hard for him, and maybe he’s even trying to do the right thing, but when in reality he’s always doing the wrong thing, that doesn’t help me at all. I’ve tried to get to know him, I’ve tried to build some sort of relationship, but he’s so cold and distant, I sometimes wonder if he hates me.”

“He doesn’t, you can be sure of that. Whatever his faults, he doesn’t hate people for no reason, and you haven’t given him one. Look, I’m not trying to excuse behaviour that is not okay. I know he has not done right by you, and he has to do better – in fact, if I’m not much mistaken, Inspector Lewis is taking him right now for a little heart-to-heart over a couple of pints.”

Lizzie’s eyes widened.

“You planned this?”

“Well, not exactly, more hoped that we would get the chance. I hope you don’t mind?”

Lizzie didn’t mind, much. There were worse ways to spend an hour than drinking a glass of wine you hadn’t paid for, even if the purpose was to elicit some sympathy for your horrible boss.

“Good. Hold that thought, I’ll be right back.”

Lizzie thought that Innocent needed to go to the toilet, but when she came back, she was bearing another two glasses of wine.

“If you think I’m buttering you up by plying you with booze, you are exactly right,” she said disarmingly.

“Well, at least you are honest about it. It’s a refreshingly new way of being manipulated,” Lizzie retorted and raised her glass.

“Cheers.”

“Cheers.”

They drank and were silent for a while, before Jean resumed the conversation.

“I want to ask you to give it a bit more time before you put in that request. I know from experience that it takes time to get to know Hathaway, but I also know that he is a good man who wants to do the right thing, even if he goes the wrong way about it. I think, with Inspector Lewis back in the game, that we could see an improvement soon. I’m just asking you to wait a little longer.”

“But Ma’am, I don’t think that having Inspector Lewis back has had any positive effect at all. If anything, it has made DI Hathaway more insecure. He doesn’t know where he stands with Lewis, and as a consequence he doesn’t know where he stands with me. I think that Lewis’ return has made everything more confusing and difficult.”

“You may be right for now, but I really believe it will work out for the best in the long run. Lewis was the only person who ever really understood Hathaway, even better than I did. And Hathaway respected him, even looked up to him. Of course, that made things difficult when Lewis retired. Hathaway was all set to leave as well. I’m glad he changed his mind, but it was a close-run thing. And now, with Hathaway being made inspector and Lewis back, they have to re-define their relationship all over. But because they worked so well together in the past, and because they were so important for each other, I’m confident that they can manage it. I’m convinced that in the long run, it will do Hathaway good to have Lewis back.”

Jean paused, but then she had another thought.

“Consider this: while you wait for things to sort themselves out, you are still working with Lewis as well as with Hathaway. And you don’t have any problems with him, do you?”

Lizzie shook her head.

“No, he’s a great guy. We get along.”

“Well, then. Hold onto that for now, and give it a bit more time. If it still doesn’t work out, then I will approve your transfer request, should you still want to put one in. Deal?”

Lizzie sighed. She didn’t relish the prospect of having to work for Hathaway any longer than necessary. But perhaps Innocent was right and things could change. And in the meantime, there was Inspector Lewis, whom she liked. She was quite happy working under him.

“All right,” she said, “deal.”


	2. Heart-to-heart

Lewis was about to put his jacket on when the text message arrived:

“I’ve got her. See that you grab him. Good luck.”

So, the game was on. He grabbed his jacket and looked across to Hathaway’s desk.

“We’re going to the pub,” he announced.

“No, I can’t, I’ve got to finish this.”

“That’s not even for you to do, that’s a job for Lizzie in the morning. Anyway, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.”

“You can’t tell me anything.”

“Yes I can. I’m older and wiser, and you patently don’t know what’s good for you. You’re coming, and that’s that.”

Hathaway scowled at him, but powered his computer down and followed him down the corridor.

“Where’re we going?”

“Just round the corner, I thought. Any objections?”

Hathaway shrugged and followed Lewis in silence. They found a couple of seats near the back door, so Hathaway could nip out to feed his nicotine addiction if he wanted to.

Robbie returned from the bar with a couple of pints and sat down opposite his former sergeant. This wasn’t going to be easy, he realised. James had that sarcastic smirk on his face which meant that he wasn’t going to listen. He had clearly realised what this was about, and all his defences were up.  
Before Robbie could even find a way to start the conversation, James said:

“Go on then. You are going to tell me all the ways in which I’m doing my job wrong, and I’d rather get it over with before the second pint.”

“I thought we were over this.”

“Over what?”

“Over you thinking I’ve been put in because you’re no good at your job. That’s not the case and you know it. So can you please stop feeling insecure about my presence and at least pretend that you’re happy I’m back?”

“I am happy to have you back. It’s just, I don’t know where I stand. Does she trust me to do my job, or does she think I need someone to hold my hand? True, if I needed someone, I’d rather it was you than anyone else, but even so. And I know she’s set this up as well. So if you’ve got any good advice to dispense, do it now. Otherwise I’m out of here.”

Robbie shook his head. He had feared that he would have to deal with James at his most defensive, but as always with James, that anger was simply a front for his insecurity. He’d been like that from the very start, and it had taken very careful handling to make the relationship work, but today he was tired of playing those games and decided to take the bulldozer approach.

“Right,” he said, “stop being stupid for a moment and listen to me. I have advice to give because I was where you are now. I remember being promoted from sergeant to inspector, and I had to wrestle with exactly the same difficulties as you. Bear in mind that I had been a sergeant for much longer than you have – it was like entering a different world for me. But I made it work, because I figured out how to work with my sergeants and not against them. I’m not vain, but I know I was a good boss to you.”

“Yes, you were,” murmured Hathaway, actually looking somewhat contrite now.

“And you were an excellent sergeant. And you know why? Because I gave you the space to become one. I gave you the chance to prove yourself, and you did. And you have to do the same for Maddox, or the whole think is never going to work. And what’s more, you’ll never be what an inspector is supposed to be. So, tell me honestly, why do you think Maddox is not up to the job? Why do you think that things are going to go wrong if you don’t do them yourself?”

“I don’t know, I just...it’s my responsibility to make sure they go right. If they don’t, it’s my fault. So, I guess, I just want to make as sure as I can that they go right.”

“But why shouldn’t they? Lizzie is a perfectly competent woman, with years of experience behind her. Is there anything that makes you doubt that?”

“No, of course not. It’s just, I don’t know, I should trust her, but somehow I can’t.”

“You’re afraid that somehow she’s going to let you down, even though you have no concrete reason to think she will.”

“Yes.”

“And in that twisted mind of yours, when people let you down, it’s your fault.”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Well, it’s high time you got over that nonsense. Let me tell you the secret of being a good boss: you have to take risks. You have to take a gamble. You give your bagman a task and trust them to do it right. That is how they learn, that is how they grow. That is how I brought you up. Did you let me down? You know you did. Did I throw the towel the first time you made a mistake? Did I abandon you because of that?”

Hathaway was staring into his now empty glass.

“No, sir.”

Robbie let the “sir” slide for now and continued:

“Okay, here is what you do. You forget all your fears and worries and trust issues and whatever emotional baggage you’re carrying round with you. You are the boss now, and you look at your sergeant objectively: what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, where are they competent and experienced already and where do they still have to learn. And then you give them a task which they are likely to succeed in but might stretch them a little. And you trust them to get on with it. Sergeant Maddox is a grown-up. When she makes a mistake, she will take responsibility and not simply blame it on you. It’s time you grew up as well.”

Hathaway didn’t say anything to that. He just stood up, mumbled “excuse me a moment” and went outside. Lewis assumed that he wanted a quick smoke, but he was gone for quite some time. He hoped that James hadn’t done a runner, but just then he re-appeared, not through the back door, but from the direction of the bar. He put two whiskies onto the table and sat down.

“The truth is,” he said, “I’m terrified of putting a foot wrong. I’m afraid I’ll say the wrong thing, or say it at the wrong moment, or use the wrong tone. So my solution is not to say anything. If you don’t do something, at least you can’t get it wrong. But of course that in itself is wrong. So I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, it seems to me that you’ve nicely caught yourself in a trap of your own making. Which isn’t exactly new, is it? But think of it from Maddox’ point of view for a moment. She’s trying to do the right thing, but if she doesn’t hear from you whether she got it right or not, she won’t know where she stands. A very wise woman once told me ‘people won’t know how you feel unless you tell them’. You’ve got to tell her, James. Whether she’s done a good job or a bad one, she needs to know.”

“I know, it’s just that first, I’m very conscious of the fact that I’m not much older than she is. Second, I’m very conscious that I’m a posh white male, and she is – well, pretty much the polar opposite. So if I tell her she’s done a good job, I’m afraid that it will come across as patronising. Is she going to think that I didn’t expect her to do well? If I tell her well done, doesn’t that sound like I’m surprised she managed it?”

“But why should she think that? You’re not an unpleasant person when you act normally. It’s by putting up this icy front that you’ve alienated her more than anything else. Lighten up a little. Relax. Just be a bit more yourself.”

“It’s usually my Self that people can’t stand.”

“Nonsense. I’ve stood you all these years, haven’t I?”

“You’re the exception that proves the rule, sir.”

“Yeah, I’ve never understood what that is supposed to mean. How can an exception prove the rule?”

“It comes from a legal principle, _exceptio probat regulam in casis non exceptis_ – the exception proves the rule in cases not excepted. ‘Prove’ is meant here in the sense of ‘confirm’, which is why it is sometimes _exceptio confirmat regulam_. If an exception is specifically stated, one can infer that in all other cases the rule holds, and it is thus confirmed.”

Lewis sighed.

“Serves me right for asking.”

He was relieved to see Hathaway smile at that. Gesturing at their empty glasses, he said:

“You got time for another?”

“Sure, why not. Thanks.”

Lewis stood up and made his way to the bar. Well, he’d sowed the seeds. He would have to wait and see if they took root.


	3. Group Session

The team had brought their latest case to a satisfactory conclusion. The suspect was in custody, and they had no doubt that their evidence would convince the CPS to proceed. To celebrate, Maddox, Hathaway and Lewis went for a pub lunch together. The suggestion had come from Lewis. He had an idea of keeping things on the right track by bringing their little team together outside of work. This, he hoped, would further normalise the relations between James and Lizzie. Neither of them had excused themselves, something Lewis had half feared. So far so good.

They put in their food orders at the bar, and Hathaway bought the first round. He raised his glass to his colleagues:

“Good work everyone. Thank you.”

They all drank to that and enjoyed a moment of quiet satisfaction.

“Nice place,” Maddox said, looking around. “I haven’t been here before.”

“I’m sure we will introduce you to plenty of nice places in the future,” said Lewis. “This one serves good food as well as good beer. When the weather’s nice we’ll choose one where we can sit in the open air. Not that the air will be particularly fresh with him around,” he added, pointing at James.

Hathaway shook his head and winced. Lizzie shot a concerned look at her boss, who sported a black eye and a cut across his cheekbone – the suspect had resisted his arrest rather vigorously.

“Does it hurt, sir?”

“A bit,” Hathaway conceded.

“You should know, sergeant,” Lewis said to Maddox, “that in Hathaway-speak ‘a bit’ means ‘a bloody lot’. First case we ever worked on together, he tells me that he ‘used to row a bit’. Turns out he rowed for Cambridge in the Boat Race – one of the Oxford coaches recognised him.”

“That’s pretty good, isn’t it?” said Lizzie, who didn’t know anything about rowing.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Lewis said with a laugh. “Did you go to university?”

“I did, actually, but not for long. I started a degree in nursing, but I found that it wasn’t for me. Dropped out and joined the police instead.”

“Really? My daughter’s a nurse, in Manchester.”

“Does she enjoy it?”

“Yeah, from what she tells me.”

“Good for her. Manchester is a great place to be as well.”

“So how are you finding Oxford so far? Is is what you expected?”

“It is in a way,” said Maddox. “Before I came, I imagined Oxford to be full of ancient buildings and tweedy academics. And then when I arrived here, I found it full of ancient buildings and tweedy academics. It actually looks like is does on television.”

“If you mean ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by that, you’d be right,” supplied Hathaway. “Students reeling drunk, stumbling through the town centre...”

“Oh, don’t spoil it for her straight away,” chided Lewis, “she’ll lose her illusions soon enough.”

“We should go out and give you the tourist experience before it all palls for you,” suggested Hathaway. “Guided tour of the Bodleian, punting on the Isis -”

“With you pointing out all the places where we found a body over the years?”

“Ah, I’m not sure about the punting,” said Lizzie, “I’d rather stay on dry land. It’s interesting to watch, though. It looks quite difficult.”

“It’s not difficult, but there’s a knack to it,” explained Hathaway. “Of course, in Cambridge we pole from the other end. Much more sensible.”

“How’s that?”

“In Cambridge, the person who poles stands on the little platform, conveniently affixed to the stern for the purpose. In Oxford, they eschew the platform for some reason and instead stand in the bows, propelling the whole thing backwards. Perverse, I call it.”

Maddox looked at her boss. She was pretty sure that he was joking, although up to now she hadn’t known that he had any sense of humour at all. She had of course heard about the great rivalry between Cambridge and Oxford, but she hadn’t known that the differences between the two extended to divergent punting styles.

Their food arrived, and the conversation flagged while they were eating. Lewis looked across at his former sergeant. This little outing had gone pretty well so far, he reckoned. James seemed more relaxed, he was not just physically present but mentally engaged and had even contributed to the conversation. A few more of these sessions, he thought, and the relationship between these two, which had been headed for the rocks, could be turned around. A few drinks after work, a couple more lunches, and the healing power of the Great British Pub would work its magic in bringing people together. It looked like there was a future for their little team after all.


End file.
